Elsewhere on the forum there has been much dribbling over the new Leica M9 and much wailing over the price. The problem is that after buying an M9 there's likely to be little money left in the bank for any Leica glass short of raiding savings put aside to get the kids through Uni.

It's marketed as an accessory for the LUMIX DMC-G1 and DMC-GH1 but it should work equally well on any micro four-thirds body such as the Olympus E-P1. Not rangefinders, of course, so manual focussing might be a bit fussy. The data sheet is available here (PDF file) and it also lists lens compatibility.

So one could start a collection of Leica lenses while saving for that full-frame M9, albeit at the cost of using them on a body with a crop factor of two. Of course Leica glass ain't exactly cheap either but it's an option.

As an illustration of what's possible check out this video from Vimeo, made with an Olympus Pen E-P1 and a Noctilux f/1.0 lens.

Bob.

P.S. I was in a bit of a quandary as to where to post this but in the end gave precedence to Leica and put it here.

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True. Presumably using the EVF of the DMC-GH1 would make life a little easier when focussing during filming when compared to using the LCD of the E-P1. But I think that using Leica M glass for filming may not be the best use of its optical sharpness unless one actually needs a ridiculously bright aperture...

But micro four-thirds looks a lot more attractive to me than it did now that I know it can be used with those M lenses instead of the Leica D lenses and other lenses from Panasonic and Olympus. I'm almost tempted to retire my Canon PowerShot G10 in favour of an Olympus E-P1 together with an ED 14-42mm 1:3.5-5.6 kit lens and then start saving for my first M lens.

OK, I admit it: I'm fantasising and I doubt I'll go that route but it might be an option for some.

If you really want to use M lenses, I'm wondering how low will used M8.x bodies go now the M9 is out?... Not that I can afford M lenses anyway...

Maybe I've grown lazy. Maybe I was always lazy, but the lens would have to be something special not to get a native AF model on m43. Fair enough the choice is rather small at the moment but it will improve over time, as will the bodies. If they reach G1 level of EVF or better that could swing it for serious MF use.

The ability to fit almost any lens with mechanical adapter is handy for those cases where you have a selection of other lenses to hand, although unfortunately due to the electronic aperture interface EOS lenses are not really one of them.